Following the Asiana 214 crash earlier this month, a number of people have asked how these incidents affect airlines financially. For those interested, Thomas John Walker, Marcus Glen Walker, Dolruedee Thiengtham and Kuntara Pukthuanthong have a forthcoming paper in the International Review of Law and Economics on that very subject, The Role of Aviation Laws and Legal Liability in Aviation Disasters: A Financial Market Perspective (currently available from SSRN here). From the abstract:

Legal liability claims against airlines and airplane manufacturers following an aviation
disaster are determined through a myriad of international treaties,
intercarrier agreements, and federal and state laws. Which law applies
in a specific situation depends on various circumstances surrounding the
accident. As a result, pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage awards for
the families of the accident victims may vary substantially from case to
case. Our study examines how aviation
disasters affect the short and long-term performance of U.S. airlines
and U.S. airplane manufacturers and explores the factors that drive the
performance differences. While prior research has largely focused on
brand name effects and rising insurance premiums as possible
determinants of stock price losses, our results suggest that the
regulatory environment that applies to a given aviation
accident has a significant impact on how the market reacts to its
announcement. Ceteris paribus, we find that accidents that are governed
by state laws which place no limit on damage claims entail particularly
large stock price declines. Accidents for which federal laws or
international treaties restrict claimable damages, on the other hand,
are associated with smaller stock price drops.

While the moment of truth for ICAO's efforts to produce a global emissions plan won't arrive until September's assembly meeting, much of the difficult work necessary to determine what elements are acceptable to the major parties must be done in advance. Along those lines, Reuters has a useful update on the state of EU-U.S. discussions.